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14th March 2008
Weak high street sees profits drop for French Connection
Fashion retailer French Connection has reported a substantial drop in profits for the year ending February 2007.
Stephen Marks, who founded French Connection in 1972, announced on Wednesday, March 12th that the chain's performance "not good enough", with profits slipping down by 22.5 per cent.
In addition, he revealed that sales had fallen by two per cent down to £236.1 million.
Mr Marks hastened to point out that wholesale orders to department stores were up by five per cent in the UK for the spring and summer collection, which he said was a good indication that things were looking up. However, he warned that high street stores sill face tough competition from web-based retailers.
He commented: "There are signs of a recovery in the last few weeks, in areas like men's suiting, and we could make some inroads in the second half of the year, but I can never remember trading conditions being as difficult as they are now. I wish we could wave a magic wand over this, but we can't.
"You've got the internet taking £18 billion-worth of sales away from the retail sector and there's a lot of really good competition. It's extremely difficult."
(c) 2008 Adfero Ltd.
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